Mar 24, 202116 min read

Mini Episode 4 - Updates, Anniversaries & Andrew Gosden.

Hello everyone, hope you are all keeping safe & well out there. This week it’s another mini episode, we are focussing on some true crime updates & anniversaries (The Dunblane Massacre) as well as a mini case on Andrew Gosden.

Please remember that we mean no disrespect to anyone mentioned in this episode, or across any of the Wives & Knives platforms.

We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as light hearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.

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Exciting News!

We’ve had some exciting interactions on the socials, haven’t we?

– Red-handed podcast gave us a mention in Instagram – that was so exciting because I’m a proper fan of theirs. Thanks to Mark & Bethan for offering your help. I had a nice little chat with Mark on Instagram.

– yes, that was nice, they’re a great podcast. And Sue Homan liked our post about Stuart Lubbock on Facebook, she was his wife so that’s a duly noted nod Sue, and it seems an opportune time to bring up the developments in Stuart’s case. On the 17th of March it was revealed that the police had made an arrest of a 50-year-old man in connection to Stuart’s death. At the time of recording this episode all we know is he’s from the Cheshire area, was at the party that night and is out on bail.

We will be keeping a close eye on this and will report back and share as usual to you all.

Updates

Kendrick Johnson Dani will be covering Kendrick for a main episode in the next few weeks, but in short Kendrick Johnson was found dead and rolled up in a gym mat in the Lowndes County High School’s gym, 7 years ago! The case was an absolute shit show and local law enforcement ruled it an accident but on the 9th of March just this year, the Sheriff’s department handling the case decided to re-open it. So that’s great news.

It’s an interesting case. So yes, stand by for the full episode and hopefully more updates on that. We hope that decision provides some serious charges for those involved and some answers/closure for the family.

Missing - Andrew Gosden (by Dani)

It’s another family who are waiting for answers that are the focus of our mini case this week and it’s that of Missing teen Andrew Gosden.

Andrew Gosden disappeared from Central London on 14 September 2007 when he was 14 years old. This is a case that’s really stuck with me, more than most cases, I’m not sure why but I vividly remember when he went missing. I think some people may even know his face rather than his name because his family have never given up hope and I still regularly see posters of Andrew.

Andrew grew up in south Yorkshire he had an older sister called charlotte and Parents Kevin and Glenys, his parents where both religious but chose not to baptise their children as not to push their views on them. It seems Andrew had a great up bringing and was now growing up - he had stopped attended scouts and was getting into music. An ordinary 14-year-old boy, and he was super clever and a good lad. He had been expected to score straight as in his GCSE examinations he was described as a prize-winning mathematician who seemed destined for Cambridge.

His teachers characterised him as a shy, quiet young man who was mature beyond his years. I do remember him being painted as shy boy and whilst that seems to be true, we know he could be social to because during the 2006 summer holidays Andrew attended a two-week residential school at Lancaster University and his mum and dad recalled that he was uncharacteristically enthused about what he had been doing there. I found a lovely description of Andrew which said he was happy with his own company but was not a loner as he had his own small group of like-minded friends - and I can defiantly relate to that.

During the 2007 school summer holidays his parents had suggested that he travel alone to London to stay with his grandmother, but he did not wish to go.

That brings us to the 14th of September, the day he went missing, eight days into the new school year after returning from the summer holidays. At 8:05 am Andrew left his house and was witnessed walking across the local park but instead of taking the school bus, Gosden diverted from his usual route and walked to a cash machine at a local garage. Here he withdrew £200 from his bank account, which was almost all of his money, then he returned home. At home, he took off his uniform and changed into casual clothes, consisting of a black Slipknot T-shirt and black jeans, and took a bag embellished with various patches of rock and metal bands. He also took his wallet, keys, and a PlayStation Portable console. No other possessions were identified as missing and at the time he did not have a phone which I don’t feel was too unusual in 2007. Andrew's father stated that his son did not appear to have taken a sweatshirt or coat with him and had also not taken the charger for his PSP he also left around £100 in cash that he had saved up from birthdays.

He then walked to Doncaster railway station and purchased a one-way ticket to London which cost £31.40, a railway worker recalled that she had told Andrew that a return ticket cost just 50p more, but he insisted on purchasing a single ticket.

At 9:35 Gosden was witnessed boarding the train to King's Cross station alone. One woman reported sitting next to Gosden, whom she described as being quiet and engrossed in playing his video game console. Meanwhile when Gosden failed to attend morning lessons at his school his teachers tried to contact his parents. The school believed that they had called Gosden’s parents and left a message informing them that he had not attended school. However, the school dialled the number of the parents either above or below Gosden in the register and the message was left for the wrong person.

At 11:20 Gosden arrived at King’s Cross station and was captured on CCTV leaving the main entrance of the station at 11:25 am. Andrew has never been seen again.

His family, having not received a call from the school didn’t realise Andrew was missing initial 7pm and that is when the police where contacted.

It was on the third day that they realised Andrew had gone to London after speaking to Doncaster railway station. He had been remembered because he refused the return ticket. His family wondered if he was planning to stay with relatives as he had many in London. It took 3 weeks for CCTV of Andrew at Kings cross station to be located. Loads of leads where investigated but all came to nothing - most of these revolved around why Andrew would have gone to London that day. Could it have been to see a band or meet someone. As far as we know Andrew had no social media and nothing has been found to suggest that he could have been lured to London that day. People have been looking for Andrew ever since and despite a few sightings that couldn’t be proved nothing has come any closer to explaining what happened to him that day.

For me it’s sadly not surprising that a young boy, who was unfamiliar to London could go missing/come to harm but there are 2 things that completely blow my mind. Firstly, what made him go to London that day - this seems so out of character and to me - so sure of the moment, Like I mentioned he left money at home and didn’t take much with him at all, which seems to indicate he wouldn’t be gone for long, but if this is the case why no return ticket?

Secondly if Andrew cam to harm where is his body someone must know.

That must be terrible for them, I hope there is some news and movement on this case soon. Have they recently appealed for information on this case? I feel like I’ve seen his face in some recent articles.

Age progression photos were released in 2019 and like I said his family haven’t given up. They all seem to be active in the search for Andrew and helping reunite missing people with their loved ones. It’s so sad and such a mystery - I will always be looking for Andrew and I hope one day his family get some answers.

I think we should also mention Sarah Everard. Because that’s been a huge case since, she was originally reported missing.

No doubt our audience will be fully aware of Sarah and what happened to her. We had some links posted on the page by listeners and we’ve had some good interactions and feedback, so thank you for that. I’m glad that it looks like justice is going to be done for Sarah.

And not to downplay what happened to Sarah and what has happened since, but I would today prefer to focus on the people out there that haven’t had as much attention, like Andrew and a few other lesser-known cases. There were a few that caught my eye recently and I posted a link on the page to some other interesting cases of missing persons in particular. I am keeping my eye on all of them and will update you accordingly.

But I wanted to give a quick mention to two cases in particular.

Blessing Olusegun

Blessing was discovered dead on a beach in East Sussex on 18th September last year, with nothing but a few of her belongings close by to her body.

Blessing was a 21-year-old business student from London who was on a one-week placement in Bexhill as a carer to help old people with dementia and other mental health issues.

Her death has been deemed as “unexplained” by Sussex Police and a post-mortem has determined she died by drowning.

But with a large gap of time between when she was last spotted alive to the discovery of her body, there’s a lot of mystery around her death.

There is now a petition doing the rounds saying that the Police did not go far enough in their investigation into Blessing’s death, with racism and the discrimination of people of African heritage in public services cited as playing a part.

The petition, which has been signed more than 40,600 times at the time of recording.

Definitely a compelling case that listeners may be interested in looking into.

There are plenty of other cases of missing people we could go into, but it’s supposed to be a mini. Another case that I wanted to quickly mention before I do my anniversary bit is that of Leah Croucher. Dani, have you heard of Leah?

– Refresh my memory.

Leah Croucher

Leah disappeared in Milton Keynes on February 15th, 2019 as she was on her way to work. She has not been seen or heard from since.

She was last seen by her parents at their home at 22:00 on 14 February.

She told her family she was meeting a friend that night, but police said the meeting did not happen and have appealed for information on where she was between 18:00 and 19:15.

The family and her friends are I think pretty clear on who was involved, and her dad John recently did a press conference where he said the...

"selfish person" needed to come forward as the disappearance was "destroying the family".

he also said.

"I will name him. If the police don't like it, tough. I will name him publicly if he doesn't come forward soon with the information the police need,"

Intriguing case and I’ll pop up the links as usual.

– definitely keep an eye on that.

Anniversaries

It was the anniversary of Claudia Lawrence’s disappearance recently. The 18th of March 2009. Police have launched a fresh appeal so watch this space. We covered Claudia in episode 5.

Just last week the lead on the investigation said that new information has come to light and sparked a whole new line of enquiry - the police are urging whoever provided this information to get back in touch with as much detail as possible.

– so the final thing I wanted to talk about is an anniversary of a terrible crime and it’s one that I think most British people have heard of or are definitely aware of and that is the Dunblane Massacre. I think this deserves a full episode, but I wanted to mention it because it happened on the 13th of March in 1996 so it’s 25 years ago now. it’s a truly harrowing story and its content is tough going.

The Dunblane Massacre

There are plenty of episodes out there that cover this topic if you want to do more research, our friends at red-handed do a good one.

– they do. And there are lots of interviews and articles in the media at the moment due to the anniversary.

I have a clear memory of this happening, It’s the first time that ‘school shooting’ fully entered my consciousness, sadly now a days it feels like a monthly occurrence; especially if you consider mass shootings in a general sense.

And that is one thing I will say as a positive in this case, whilst the uk has had mass shootings before and after Dunblane (Hungerford 1987 the Cumbria shootings in 2010); it was the last school shooting. I pray it stays that way. America! Take note. 1997 laws were passed on firearms without banning guns completely, it happened during a change in political parties controlling the country and they still managed to agree and make it work. I know we are a much smaller country than the US; but you don’t have to do it in a day – now crack on.

They also had a firearm amnesty 95 million pounds was given in exchange for guns and ammunition. They got a lot right after what happened at Dunblane and at the public inquest after the event it was noted that the violence which the shooter used would not have been predictable.

Thomas Watt Hamilton was born on 10 May 1952 in Glasgow to Mother Agnes Hamilton 20 and Father Thomas Watt 22. His bus driver father left when he was 18months old and a distraught Agnes moved back home to live with her parents James and Catherine Hamilton. The elderly couple officially adopted Thomas when he was 4 years old, pretending to be his real parents whilst his birth mother Agnes, pretended to be his sister.

Which I don’t find that strange, I think that was a common move back in the day to prevent scandal. His birth mother Agnes had in fact been adopted within the family by James and Catherine for that reason; they were her blood relatives but not birth parents.

– I’m not exactly sure when he found out the truth but its implied late teens to early twenties.

His childhood is ‘normal’ he did well at school and as a teenager joined a rifle club, the boy’s brigade, and the chess club. His family had the local Kitchen fitting & Hardware shop in Cowane, Stirling. In 1973 at the age of 20 he became an assistant leader of his local Boy scouts club and in 74 the leader of the 24th Stirlingshire troop.

He had led two camping trips to Aviemore in the Highlands. On the first he told the parents of the eight boys that there was a hostel; No hostel had been booked and the boys ended up spending a cold night in the back of a van. On the second expedition, boys got tired and cold due to digging snow holes. Parents complained and he was asked to go.

The Scottish Scout Association is adamant there was no public disgrace. Hamilton was asked to resign quietly and without fuss simply because he was an incompetent leader, not because they believed he was molesting boys, or had any other concerns at that time.

I find that fascinating because this is something quite trivial really, no one was really hurt. I would imagine that most could have just moved on from that, been a bit embarrassed, but it would be something you’d maybe laugh about later with friends?

Thoughts?

I’m in no way defending this asshole by the way. I just think it highlights his personality because he harbours this resentment, and it evolves or escalates?

Over the next twenty years Hamilton hired school halls/gyms - from three separate local authorities to run sports clubs; these were weekly sessions of five a side football and gymnastics for boys aged eight to 11. The clubs were monitored, and a spokesperson for the council said they had no cause for concern. Alongside the clubs he also ran summer camps for boys where he charged £70-80 a week for organised daily activities.

In Stirling where he lived, locals described him in varying ways. He is noted as being an apparently shy man ‘He was very head down and sort of crept along’.

he rarely exchanged more than a few words, when he did, speaking slowly and softly without making eye contact.

He seldom mixed with others outside of the boy’s clubs. He was a member of the local gun club but hardly ever attended, he had few if any real friends and a neighbour said that the only visitors, they saw were the police and a gardener.

The boys in his clubs called him ‘Mr Creepy’ and the adults nicknamed him Spock. odd character is the general theme. But then others say that he was always very polite, intelligent, knowledgeable, kind and in control.

In 1986 the shop owned by the family and run by him closed, and he turned to buying and selling Photography equipment, cameras etc.; an area he had quite an interest in. So, his main focus and source of income at this time is the boy’s clubs and the photography business.

As the head of several of these clubs he had been subject to a number of complaints (ten separate charges) to police regarding inappropriate behaviour towards young boys, one by one parents, local authorities and the police became anxious about his activities.

Some of the claims included him having taken photographs of semi-naked boys without parental consent, forcing them to run around in only swimming trunks, rub suntan oil on to his body, and throwing them naked into a freezing loch. There was no suggestion of sexual abuse and nothing formally ever came of any of those complaints.

But in 1992, The councillors had heard other stories much like the ones above and particularly complaints from parents. over a summer camp that Hamilton had held in Dunblane, three children had run away, apparently because of the harshness of the training.

In the time leading up to the massacre at Dunblane primary school

Hamilton had sent many letters where he claimed that local rumours had led to the failure of his business, and that, his attempts to organise a boys' club were subjected to persecution by local police and the scout movement.

Among those he complained to were the Queen and his local MP’s as well as parents of the children.

Trading standards had gotten involved with the photography business and he was banned from selling through his usual means.

He was in serious financial difficulties. His mood was low, and he was deeply resentful of those who had claimed that he was a pervert and had discouraged boys from attending his clubs.

After a gap of about 8 years his interest in firearms was rising.

He was known to have carried a gun on his person, and one parent, who had complained about him had advised that "He was in his van one day and he produced this gun from under his seat and pointed it at me, saying it was loaded." Another witness said they’d seen him with a gun under his jacket on a bus.

There is evidence which points to his preparing for what he did, including questioning a boy about the layout of the gym, timing of assembly and which children attended. This boy also advised that he had been asking these questions for approximately two years. a retired police officer said that Hamilton had asked him about hypothetical incidents at the school and how long it would take the police to respond. He would go on to cut the phone lines outside the school.

TW.

Around 9:30 a.m., the shooter walked into the school with four handguns and 743 cartridges of ammunition, all of which he’d acquired legally. After firing two shots into the assembly hall and girls’ bathroom, he entered the gym, where 28 children had gathered for a lesson.

According to a government inquiry conducted after the attack, the gunman “fired indiscriminately and in rapid succession,” striking the three teachers present and killing one of them, Gwen Mayor, a 43-year-old mother of two, as she attempted to shield her students. This first hail of bullets killed one child and injured several others; advancing on the wounded, the shooter “walked in a semi-circle, systematically firing 16 shots” before standing over the children and firing at point-blank range. After shooting at students and staff in the hallway, a nearby classroom and the library cloakroom, he returned to the gym and turned the gun on himself.

In just three to four minutes, the gunman had fired more than 100 times, striking 32 people, and killing 17, himself included. Another injured child died of their wounds en route to the hospital, bringing the final death toll to 18.

The gym was bulldozed and then later the entire school had a full renovation.

It’s fucking brutal. Isn’t it?

I mentioned the gun reform at the beginning, but I should also mention the gun control network, the uks first organization dedicated to gun reform. There was also a petition to ban all handguns in the U.K. Dubbed the Snowdrop Campaign in honour of the only flower in bloom on the day of the massacre it garnered more than one million signatures by the time reached Parliament in the summer of 1996. And a lot of that work was done by or in conjunction with the parents of the children killed.

in 2004, the Dunblane Centre was built with donations that poured in from around the world, since then it has served as a site of community, celebration, and remembrance. In 2013, locals gathered there around a television to cheer on tennis star Andy Murray, a Dunblane native who survived the massacre as an 8-year-old, as he became the first British man to win at Wimbledon in 77 years.

Prior to the pandemic, the center hosted a range of activities, including fitness classes, a youth Lego-building club and a choir. So that’s something lovely and positive.

glass etchings honouring the 17 victims dot the building’s windows. Each has a gold leaf–adorned with an engraving of a personal image that held significance for the individual represented: Sophie North’s shows a cat on a chocolate bar—a nod to her beloved pet Kit-Kat—while Ross Irvine’s depicts a fox from his favourite TV show, Brett McKinnon’s features a Power Ranger.

That’s the bit that makes my throat thick.

So, from the public inquiry – Lord Cullen states -

In the light of expert evidence from a psychologist and psychiatrist I conclude that Thomas Hamilton was not mentally ill but had a paranoid personality with a desire to control others in which his firearms were the focus of his fantasies. The violence which he used would not have been predictable. His previous conduct showed indications of paedophilia.

There is so much more we could go into and discuss on this one, for me I agree mostly with the above statement. I’m not convinced on the paedophilia, there’s no report of sexual abuse, no sexual offences except he had been cautioned by police 18 months prior to the massacre, after being caught in a compromising position on Edinburgh's Calton Hill, a well-known haunt of the gay community.

I’m not an expert but would agree with the paranoid personality - disorder? He appears to always blame other people for his misfortunes, and I think wants to find his place or be recognised and when he doesn’t, he punishes the people he feels are responsible. I mean you’ve got an issue with me come to me, leave the kids out of it. That’s the only motive I can see.

This is what gets me when the experts say they do it for the notoriety? How do you think you are being remembered? A fucking prick. Selfish, repugnant, a weak coward.